Thanks for the further detail Melanie, and the heads-up re dashes in menu item codes.
Still wondering about further seasonings in the ma po tofu -- black beans, mushrooms, etc?
In my experience of that dish around the S. Bay, either it was a recognizably Sichuanese rendition (consistent with all recipes I've seen and with characteristic flavors and aroma), or it was completely different (e.g. pea and carrot bits, possibly from a freezer bag, and no citrus scent from hua jiao, at Bamboo Garden in MV). When I was new to each restaurant, I would inquire if the cook was by any chance from Sichuan province. Answer has correlated to the dish's basic authenticity WITHOUT exception.
Notably, this revealed Sichuanese cooks at certain restaurants that did not bill themselves Sichuanese, and also lack of Sichuanese hand in one kitchen that did advertise itself as Sichuanese. (And Bamboo Garden and several
others have followed the same rule, though the unauthentic MPTF was no surprise in those cases since I already knew the kitchens were non-Sichuanese.)
So my take, within the particular region where I've avidly tested it, perhaps 12 restaurants total, is that kitchens with Sichuanese management, and only those, have produced recognizably authentic MPTF and those were all vividly flavored and balanced. The others were all over the map, practically anything with tofu and some hot spice. Consequently, I don't associate it with Americanization but with non-Sichuanese cooks.
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